Biography
Evelyn Schmidt, born June 20, 1949, in Görlitz, became a bookseller after finishing school in 1968. She then started a one-year traineeship at GDR television and was sent to Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen in Potsdam-Babelsberg where she graduated in 1974 with a diploma in directing. She then was the first alumna of the film school to become a student of Konrad Wolf's master class. During this time, she finished the short films "Greta Heckenrose" (1974) and "Lasset die Kindlein..." (1976). In 1977, Schmidt became an assistant director at DEFA's studio for feature films and was employed as a young director in 1979.
In the same year, she finished her first full-length feature film "Seitensprung" ("Escapade") that tells the story of a father who seems to live a happy marriage but has a double life with another woman and another child. The distinguished study received a lot of praise and was shown in the International Forum of the Berlinale film festival. Schmidt received even more recognition – even internationally – for her next film, "Das Fahrrad" ("The Bicycle", 1981). The portrait of a single mother who has problems getting along with her life aroused discontent with the people responsible at DEFA because of its critical stance towards the status quo in the GDR. Thus, the film got stashed away and was not sent to international festivals despite several invitations.
Afterwards, Schmidt encountered severe problems finishing her next films. "Auf dem Sprung", the story of two friends, was finished in 1984 but was unanimously rejected. For a while, Schmidt even returned to working as an assistant director, for instance for Roland Gräf's "Das Haus am Fluss" (1985). But in 1987, she finally landed another success with the realistic children"s movie "Felix und der Wolf". In 1990, DEFA employed her as a director for the feature film "Der Hut" (1991) about a housecleaner and mother who wants to break from her life that does not give her any perspectives.
In 1991, Evelyn Schmidt was laid off in the course of the liquidation of DEFA. Subsequently, she was not able to finished further movie projects, and several proposals did not take off. In 1993, she started to work with children and teenagers at Theaterwerkstatt Pankow and developed several productions there and at other off-theatre stages. Furthermore, Schmidt works as a lecturer at Schauspielschule Charlottenburg, among others, and is a visiting professor of Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen "Konrad Wolf" in Potsdam-Babelsberg. She also serves as the head of the association of film and TV professionals in Berlin. Evelyn Schmidt is a member of the jury of the German short film awards and the president of the grants committee of the DEFA foundation.
The contents of this entry were funded with the support of the DEFA-Stiftung.